Pope Benedict XVI

Stan Honda / AFP / Getty

AGE: 81
OCCUPATION: Pontiff
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 2

PRO: His six-day U.S. visit last spring drew large crowds and re-energized the Catholic Church. Attempted to heal his strained relationship with the Islamic community, holding a Catholic-Muslim seminar at the Vatican.

CON: He recently reinstated (and then re-excommunicated) a Holocaust-denying bishop, a p.r. fiasco that outraged Jewish leaders and raised questions about Benedict's leadership.